1 vol., 424pp., with appendix, 22pp., of important letters referred to in the minutes.

Content Description

Volume of minutes of the General Assembly, including the following selected entries: meeting at which Sir Charles Barry was elected architect for the new Royal Academy building, 25 March 1859; the concerns of the President, Sir Francis Grant at the state of the Schools, and Richard Westmacott’s proposal to appoint a permanent teacher in the Antique School, 14 June - 23 July 1860; Sir Edwin Landseer’s suggestion that the Council consider “some means of rendering the study of the nude model less offensive to decency and morality”, 10 December 1864; note that a discussion was held concerning the vagueness of the terms of the Government’s offer of a new site for the Royal Academy, 5 July 1865, and the approval of Sir Francis Grant’s letter of reply to the First Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Works, which is transcribed in full and culminates in an assertion of the Royal Academy’s independence, 17 July 1865; voting on resolutions to create an indefinite number of Associates and whether to accept the Government’s offer of Burlington House as the new site of the Royal Academy building, 20 February 1866; a note that members were urged by the President, Sir Francis Grant, to consider the offer of a site on the Kensington Gore Estate made by the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition of 1851 as a site for the new Royal Academy building, “as offering advantages not to be found elsewhere”, 19 May 1866; changes to the laws, providing for the creation of an indefinite number of Associates and a minimum of twenty, 31 July 1866; the moving of a vote of thanks to Sir Francis Grant, on the role he had played in bringing negotiations with the Government about the Royal Academy’s move to Burlington House to a successful conclusion, 29 August 1866; the estimate of the Treasurer, Sydney Smirke, that the cost of erecting galleries, the Schools and the additional storey at Burlington House would be £70,000, 21 March 1867; General Assembly approval for the institution of an order of Honorary Foreign Academicians, 28 January - 2 June 1868; J. C. Horsley’s proposal to hold a winter centenary exhibition withdrawn after it became apparent that Burlington House would not be ready to stage it, 2 June 1868; Richard Redgrave’s motion that the Council define accurately the new office of Registrar in view of proposed increases in salaries for other officers, 16 November 1868, and the proposal that every salaried officer except the President should be asked to provide a statement of his duties, 1 December 1868; first meeting in Burlington House, 24 November 1868; and John R. Herbert’s motion that one or more shorthand writers be engaged at every General Assembly, “to preserve a more complete record of the proceedings of the Royal Academy than the minutes can furnish”, 5 December 1868.